PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI - Facing public pressure to act, Plainfield Township officials are taking the necessary steps to borrow tens of millions of dollars as part of a plan to provide drinking water to hundreds of residents.

The township put out a notice in January that it plans to borrow up to $25 million to invest in the municipal water system.

The move comes as an investigation into drinking-water contamination from old tannery waste from Wolverine World Wide has found toxic chemicals in private wells of hundreds of homes, some in Plainfield Township. The company used Scotchgard, a stain and water repellant that contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS.

The water main extension being pursued by Plainfield Township is unusual in several ways.

It is the biggest infrastructure project the township has undertaken in recent history, according to Van Wyngarden. The only other extensions of the township's water system were spurred by new development.

The township is also in unfamiliar territory as it negotiates a deal with Wolverine ahead of the conclusion of the investigation and the state's lawsuit.

The township is pushing forward on what would typically be the final step of an investigation into environmental contamination by a company, Van Essen said.

"It's a very complicated matter, and it's being done a little out of sequence," Van Essen said.

Typically the extent of the pollution would have been completely defined and plans in place to both clean up the site and to help the individuals affected - all solidified by a court order, Van Essen said.

In this case, the investigation is still very active and the state just formalized the investigation with a lawsuit against Wolverine in January. The complaint seeks a long-term, reliable drinking-water solution for residents whose private wells have been contaminated.

His argument: municipal water is the best long-term solution for residents living near the House Street dump - and Wolverine will likely be ordered to pay for it anyway in court - so why not start now?

"...DEQ's immediate focus is on continuing to collect data so we can determine the full extent of the area of concern, ensure that interim alternate water supplies are provided to affected well users while studies continue, and use the data to determine where municipal water must be extended," Brown said in a statement.

The timing

At a certain level, Plainfield Township is pursuing swift actions as a matter of public relations, Van Essen said.

The township wants to install a $400,000 granular activated carbon filter in its water treatment plant that would remove all PFAS from the drinking water system - the first of its kind in the state, and a move the township isn't legally required to take.

Van Essen said it's important that the township show the community it has a plan - which is why starting the project this year is so crucial.

"We're trying to show people that we're moving forward, we have actions in place," Van Essen said.

The township also needed to publish the intent to bond early this year due to a 90-day notice required of any actual bond issue.

The financing would need to be secured before work could begin, Van Essen said. With weather-dependent construction season in Michigan, Van Essen said the clock is ticking if the township wants to put pipes in the ground this year.

Should the township strike a deal with Wolverine this spring, officials want to be able to move quickly in selecting a contractor.

"We can't do it all in one year anyway, so why not get started on it?" Van Wyngarden said.

Van Wyngarden said work wouldn't begin unless there was a commitment from Wolverine to pay for it.

The projects

Meanwhile, the township has a mounting number of projects it is expecting Wolverine to pay for.

In a typical year, the township would spend from $2 million to $3 million on regular maintenance to its water and sewer systems, Van Wyngarden said.

The $25 million figure attached to the bond notice is a high estimate and isn't the amount the township is asking Wolverine to pay, Van Wyngarden said.

The bond could cover a range of infrastructure improvements, Van Wyngarden said.

Those could possibly include drilling a new well field and purchasing and installing the PFAS filter at the water treatment plant, Van Wyngarden said.

The bulk of the cost will be the water-main extensions. The scope of the extensions are still a matter of negotiation with Wolverine.

Plainfield Township's water system includes 233 miles of water main pipes, and serves more than 40,000 people in the townships of Plainfield, Alpine, Algoma and Grand Rapids, as well as several customers in Walker.

The township has agreed to $438,000 in engineering contracts to date to study five different expansion areas for its water system in neighborhoods affected by the House Street dump -- and Monday, Feb. 12, will consider another engineering contract for another possible expansion.

The township's director of public services, Rick Solle, said it's imperative that work begin first on a three-mile-long water main loop on House, Herrington and Chandler that was first studied in September 2017.

"This main would serve as the backbone for many of the other planned extensions as well as directly serving some of the homes that were most directly affected by the groundwater contamination," Solle said.

The township is also considering water-main extensions to three other areas it had surveyed: Herrington south of 10 Mile Road, Herrington south of Chandler and Belmont Avenue between Post Drive and Packer Drive.

In December 2017 another possible extension also presented itself: high levels of PFAS were found in the Wellington Ridge subdivision in Algoma Township. Those homes are 1,000 feet from a new home development behind the Meijer store on 10 Mile, where the township recently extended its water mains.

Plainfield Township officials have been adamant that they won't be footing the bill to extend the water system -- and that residents won't have to either.

"I don't think we're actually going to do the work unless we have an understanding with Wolverine," Van Essen said. "The people who are in the system shouldn't have to pay for this."

Whether the work comes to fruition seems to depend on decisions by Wolverine executives and state officials.

"Wolverine Worldwide has consistently said all options remain on the table related to water quality issues faced by our community and is open to a comprehensive answer where all parties participate in the solution," the company said in a statement to MLive.

Last week, Wolverine executives said they are budgeting $40 million to put toward addressing the legacy contamination issues: $30 million to $35 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 to go toward ongoing testing and monitoring, bottled water for residents and in-home filtration systems and another $8 million to $12 million for 2018 consulting and legal fees and other expenses.

There may be other parties, however, that will be brought in to the negotiation.

Van Essen said the township may consider 3M and Waste Management to be responsible parties for the contamination. 3M is the manufacturer of Scotchgard -- the chemical used by Wolverine in the 1960s and 70s. Components of Scotchgard have been found in drinking water.

After toxic chemicals were found leaking from the closed State Disposal Landfill Superfund site off of East Beltline Avenue north of Four Mile Road into groundwater in 1985, landfill owner Waste Management paid for all of the costs related to the cleanup at the time.

Wolverine alluded to something similar in a statement to MLive: "As Plainfield Township has acknowledged, many parties contributed to the water-quality issues faced by the township and any solution must include all those entities and appropriate agencies."